List of chemical compounds with unusual names

Godly noted that "Trivial names having the status of INN or ISO are carefully tailor-made for their field of use and are internationally accepted".

[2] A website in existence since 1997[3] and maintained at the University of Bristol lists a selection of "molecules with silly or unusual names" strictly for entertainment.

These so-called silly or funny trivial names (depending on culture) can also serve an educational purpose.

In an article in the Journal of Chemical Education, Dennis Ryan argues that students of organic nomenclature (considered a "dry and boring" subject) may actually take an interest in it when tasked with the job of converting funny-sounding chemical trivial names to their proper systematic names.

Glenn Seaborg told his students that he proposed the chemical symbol Pu (from P U) instead of the conventional "Pl" for plutonium as a joke, only to find it officially adopted.